Silence is Golden
by TheLegendOfFangirl
Summary: Shizuko was forcibly taken to the Asian Branch,around the time of the Second Exorcist experiments.But something happens when she was taken that made her mute.Despite her lack of speaking,though,she befriends Alma and Yu.But when Shizuko finally escapes, she is gone for 9 years.What happens when she and Yu unite?Suckish summary.Reposted from old account. M for language, & violence.


Shizuko sulked in the corner of the room, waiting patiently for Alma to finish reading his story to the dormant Second Exorcist, envious of the the attention being given to Kanda Yu, but unable to bring herself to become angry with Alma. He was her only friend, and had been with him since he himself had awoken, but still, she said not a word to him, or anyone else for that matter. She couldn't begrudge Alma for wanting a friend who would respond to him. She looked down at her lap, in self loathing, questioning why she couldn't just talk to him. Alma, who was overly kind, and caring, and loud, and boisterous, and...and...well, he was Alma! Of all the people for her to talk to, he deserved it the most. He played with her, and understood her, but most of all, he was nice to her. He didn't expect anything from her, which was something she hadn't been accustomed to for the past three years after she came to the Order when she was four. But still, she won't talk. She had taken a vow of silence, and did not intend to break it for a very long time. She sighed in defeat as she pulled out her abused pocket watch. Its silver shine had long been tarnished, and it was dented on the side, and stained with blood. She checked the time before shuffling over to Alma, and brushing her hand across his shoulder, and then his neck. This sequence of gestures, as Alma had quickly caught on to, had come to mean "goodbye," and "see you tomorrow." He spiraled around and flung his arms around her barely-there waist, efficiently knocking her to the ground.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Shizuko!"  
She patted his head before vehemently shoving his body off of her person. Alma sadly nodded in acceptance before turning back to Yu. Shizuko quickly and silently jogged to her room, taking what was basically the long way, but it was also the route that virtually no one used aside from her. That made it easier for her to remain unseen. After slipping into be room, she threw herself onto her bed before winding the leather holding straps tightly around her wrist. They were tight enough so that she could not simply yank them off, as her keepers would make sure of, but should her wrists and arms say...expand, growing longer, and thus wider, the cords would easily slip off. After meticulously wrapping the cords, she rested herself on the unpleasantly hard and lumpy, thin mattress. Listening, she heard steps approaching, and so she expertly feigned sleep before hearing the heavy wood door open, creaking with age. Looking up, she saw Bak Chang, the son of Twi Chang, the Asian Branch's current supervisor. At 15, he was only 8 years her senior, but still she knew to respect him, especially since he was the only person that was kind to her aside from Alma and Zhu-san. But Zhu didn't really count because he was only kind to her out of pity. Alma and Bak were genuinely kind. She nodded at him in acknowledgement before turning back to stare at the ceiling.

"Shizuko, how are you today?" He gently inquired, sitting on the bed careful not to jostle her and further chafe her already bruised wrists. Shizuko looked at him with an indignant scowl on her face.  
"Right, stupid question," he sighed, looking away from the young child, a guilty look on his face. "I brought to you something, I know it isn't much, but still..." Bak trailed off, and reached into his jacket to pull out a juicy red apple. Having not eaten in three days, the mere sight of the apple made her salivate. Shizuko looked at him with her mouth wide open, and pleading eyes. He gently nodded and placed the apple against her chapped lips, allowing her to bite into it. She quickly chewed and swallowed before biting deeper into the fruit. The more bites she took, the slower she was, and the more she savored the taste, as opposed to simply getting food into her stomach like she was the first few times. After 15 minutes, all that was left were the seeds, the ends, and of course, the stem. She had even eaten through the hardy core, spitting out the seeds as she went. She nodded in thanks at the elder boy before turning back to the ceiling.  
"Rest up, Shizuko." And with that, he patted her head, somewhat flattening her forever mussed hair against her head, and walked out, closing the door gently as not to disturb Shizuko, who was already starting to fall asleep.

* * *

She woke up the next morning, and began the tedious task of waiting an hour for some one to come check on her, and perhaps, provide her with food and water. She stared at the ceiling as seconds turned to minutes, and as the minutes soon became an hour. She waited 15 more minutes before someone came. It was one of the more indifferent scientists, the ones that wanted to kill her off and put her Innocence into a different host, like Alma, for her lack of cooperation. In hand, he balanced a tray with a glass of murky water and loaf of, probably stale, bread. In the other, he held a clip board, with papers, a pen, and two syringes resting on it, one a translucent yellow, and the other clear. Without saying a word, he quickly fed her, and allowed her to drink the water. When finished, he set the tray on the bare night stand, before roughly grabbing her skinny arm, and jamming the yellow syringe into the inside of her elbow. She clamped her lips shut in pain, and began to struggle, unwilling to let him inject her with the substance. Her attempts were futile though, his bruisingly tight grasp didn't allow much movement, and she saw him easily push down the lever on the needle, and pull it out of her arm. She stared at him for a beat, before an immense wave of pain swept through her body, leaving her writhing, but still, she did not utter even a whimper of pain. She refused to give those bastards that. He looked at her, unsympathetic, and jotted down notes onto the sheets of paper before injecting her with the clear liquid. The pain was immediately eased, and the scientist left the room. Looking at her arm, Kureiji could already see bruises forming from his hand, and the needles. She waited for ten minutes before seeming it safe to get out.

"Innocence, activate," she wordlessly mouthed to herself.

A swirling light, starting at her feet, gathered around her body as her hair flew up, almost straight, into the air. The glowing stopped when her Innocence, Martyr's Puppet, finished activating. Her parasitic Innocence doubled her height, making her 9'4", and made her body that of a white, diamond hard marionette lacking strings with a large black cross over her upper torso. The bindings easily slipped off of her enlarged limbs, and she quickly deactivated, as a 9'4" glowing white marionette was not exactly subtle. She quickly and quietly slipped out of the room, and took the same route to get to the birthing room as she used to get back. She slithered in, and gently shut the large door, before being tackled to the ground by the immense force of an airborne Alma.  
"Shizuko! Your back! Not that you've ever missed a day, but still, here you are! And guess what?! Yu woke up!"

* * *

Yu Kanda POV

I watched Alma tackle some unfortunate girl to the ground, and heard the light gasp of pain as she hit the ground. Sympathetic, I walked over and yanked the idiot off of the girl.

"Idiot, who's the brat?" I spat out, as said brat got up and brushed herself off.

"Oh, this is Shizuko, she was here when I first woke up, like I was there for Yu! She has came here ever since, she doesn't talk, but still, she is my best friend! Aside from Yu, of course..." the idiot trailed on, but I stopped listening, taking this time to full assess the girl. She looked to be about two-three years younger, and was very small. Height and weight wise. Frankly, I could probably snap her spine over my knee. Her dark brown hair was long, and unkempt, and her skin was almost gaunt, and stretched across her face. Her clothes, if you could even call those rags clothes, looked four sizes too big, and her shorts were held up by a thin price of twine. She was barefoot, and on closer inspection, you could see bruises forming on her right arm. The larger one looked vaguely like a large hand, an adult-probably male-wrapped around her forearm, and what looked like needle marks where in the center of two small bruises on the inside of the same arm's elbow. But she had big, determined brown eyes. On her body, you would expect to see dead eyes, but she had fire and rage and strength in her eyes. In a nutshell, this brat, Shizuko, was malnourished, and probably abused, but would be damned if she accepted being pitied for it.

"Whatcha' lookin' at, Yu?" the Idiot asked me, getting in my face.

"Isn't it obvious? This brat is being abused," I growled after shoving him out of my face. He blanched for a moment, before turning back to the Brat.

"Is that true, Shizuko?" She looked away.

"Che. Leave the Brat alone, you idiot, it is her business, and her problem, not mine, and not yours," I grumbled out. The Idiot bristled at at my words, but accepted them nonetheless. After he walked off, probably to "talk" to the other exorcists, the Brat turned to me and nodded. As a thank you I suppose.

"Che."

* * *

Months went by, and slowly Yu Kanda became close friends with both Alma and Shizuko, though his ways of showing it were...unorthodox...to say the least. He showed to Alma by not beating on him to the point of hospitalization for more than a day or two, and he showed it to Shizuko by shouting at her to no end whenever she would try and stop the two from fighting, and end up getting injured herself. And sometimes, if she was upset, he would let her comb her fingers through his short, but still silky, blue hair. While he wouldn't say he liked the two, he had grown fond of them, and had grown used to their presence. Alma was always there, and Shizuko was there everyday from noon until four p.m.. Yu, being fairly observant, was able to pick up on, and eventually be able to know what Shizuko was trying to communicate just by her body language, almost as if she was speaking to him. Occasionally though, she had a complex request, or statement, and when that happened, she would write it in the dirt. Yu wondered what was up with Shizuko, and the disappearances, and mysterious bruises, and he had a feeling that the Idiot knew more than he let on. But Alma wouldn't say a word to Yu, and so he decided to leave it be. It was like he said, it wasn't his problem. All had been going well, that is until one of the scientists decided to check on Shizuko earlier than the normal time. She had found out too late, when they were dragging her from the birthing room, away from her friends. Only then did Alma finally explain to Yu about her circumstance, why and when she came to the Order. She was forced to come because of her parasite type Innocence, Martyr's Puppet, and she came when she was four, which wad three years ago. Alma didn't know much else, aside from that her lack of a will to speak had something to do with her coming to the Order.

* * *

Shizuko looked at Yu and Alma's severely injured bodies, and at the corpses of the scientists and Second Exorcists that Alma had killed in his rage. She looked back at her two friends, and down to her hands, eyeing the raw, chafed bruises wrapped around her wrists. After Alma had tried to help her and Yu escape, after finding out about their planned deaths, Yu for lack of results and Shizuko for lack of cooperation, the Order took no chances, and had her wrists bound bruisingly tight. During Alma and Yu's duel, Bak used the commotion as a distraction and rushed to try and free his little friend, whom he had thought of as a younger sister. For the sake of time, he simply cut the cords off, almost nicking her in the process. She looked back to boys once more before briskly jogging to them, knowing she had a very small window of time in which she could escape. She looked each of them in the eye before giving both a hug and lightly caressing their shoulders; her goodbye signal was given, and for the first time, it did not the see you tomorrow gesture. She gave Alma one last longing look, knowing that Yu had finally done him, and she ran out of the room, and made her way to freedom.

* * *

Shizuko had only been free for about month now, but had already managed to make it to England in the short time. She got food by evolving her skill at pick pocketing to a finely tuned weapon. She took only what she needed, and only when she was desperate. At night, she took refuge in cemeteries. She never stayed in the same one twice, and she never dwelled. She next to never saw people in the abandoned cemeteries, and so she was shocked to see a young boy crying at a grave. His hair was the purest of white, and his face was marred with an unusually shaped gash, still bloody. His big, innocent eyes sparkled with tears. Worried, she ran to him, and without warning, began to attempt to clean the gash. This involved rubbing his somewhat clean scarf against it, but after five minutes without results, she gave up.

"W-w-who ar-are you?" the obviously traumatized boy sputtered out. She quickly wrote her name and situation in the dirt in front of him, thankfully recognizing the language used by most of the countries she visited. He nodded, seeming deep in thought.  
He looked back at her and smiled.

"My name is Allen. Allen Walker."


End file.
